Floor wax dispensing and spreading unit



March 29, 1960 B. R. FALLEN EIAL FLOOR WAX DISPENSING AND SPREADINGUNIT2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Dec. 16, 1957 INVENTORS.

KM /KW B. R. FALLEN ETAL FLOOR WAX DISPENSING AND SPREADING UNI March29, 1960 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Dec. 16, 1957 y mum /m M M & A 5 M UniteFLOOR WAX DISPENSING AND SPREADING UNIT Burke R. Fallen, Daly City, andJames S. Fallen,

, San Francisco, Calif.

Application December 16, 1957, Serial No. 703,186

8 Claims. (Cl. 15-4 The present invention relates generally to the artof dispensing and uniformly spreading liquid wax over a floor surface.

Heretofore, various ways have been proposed and employed to apply acoating of wax to a floor surface as, for example by wax saturated rags,mops, cloth applicators, rotating brushes, and many other types ofdevices. Generally speaking all of the prior art methods of which wehave knowledge are subject to practical criticism in that they involveundue waste of wax, labor or time, in non-uniformity of wax coatingapplied to the fioor surface, or uneconomic use of the wax applicatingmeans involved.

A principal object of the present invention is to provide a wax spreadercomprising, essentially, a wick covered resilient squeegee mounted on amobile frame or carriage for movement over and in floor engaging contactwith a floor surface. In the particular embodiment of the inventionshown in the drawings the wick covered squeegee is shown as beingcarried or supported behind the chassis of a conventional industrialfioor scrubber of the general type used by many professional janitorialor building maintenance organizations. In the particular applicationillustrated, the entire mobile unit can be made to operate in such amanner'that in making a single pass over the floor surface with thecarriage the said floor will be wet, scrubbed, dried, and simultaneouslycoated with a uniform coating of wax. It is pointed out that in mostconventional commercial or industrial floor maintenance operationsmobile scrub units are used to scrub and wipe the floor dry, while waxis thereafter applied by any one of the above suggested'prior artmethods as a separate and distinct operation'from the scrubbingprocedure.

It is readily appreciated that in utilizing the present invention in theparticular manner above briefly explained substantial savings in labortime can be effected in performing in a single operation that which isperformed by successive independent operations in the prior art.

' A further object of this invention is to provide a wax applicatoremploying a squeegee having a blade urged against the floor surface withan absorbent wick disposed between the edge of the squeegee blade andthe floor.

Another object of this invention is to provide a wax applicator forliquid wax employing a resilient squeegee blade and an absorbent wicksandwiched between the blade and the fioor with a pocket of wax adjacentthe mined by the amount of .pressure exerted against the floor by theblade the absorbence of the wick sothat the quantity of wax within thepocket may be varied throughout substantially wide rangeswithoutsubstaritially affecting the quantity of wax deposited on theOther objects of the present invention will become ape parent uponreading the following specification and referring tothe accompanyingdrawings in which similar" characters of reference representcorresponding parts in prises a vacuumized water storage tank 15 mountedon wheels 17 and carrying a rotating scrubbing brush 19 and a watersqueegee 21. Y Scrubbing machine A is provided with an engine eithegasoline or electric 23 which provides power to rotatebrush 19 and alsoto provide forward drive of wheels 11 and actuation of pump 28 arrangedto vacuumize water tank 15. 1

In the conventional type of machine A water is sprayed through scrubbrush 19 while the machine is arranged to travel across a floor. Themotion of the brush together with the water cleans the floor whereafterthe water is collected by squeegee 21. Squeegee 21, it will 7 beobserved, has a concaveleading edge 30so that the water is collected atthe center portion of the squeegee whereafter water is collectedthrough'a vacuum manifold or pipe 32 and drawn into water chamber 15.Thus in operation of the device the floor is cleaned and water squeegeedfrom the floor and collected and thence re moved and drawn into thewater reserve tank so that the floor is substantially dry on thetrailing side of the squeegee. f

Squeegee 21 is mounted by two cranks 35 on an axle 36 which in turn isactuated by a linkage 38 and actuating handle member 39. Upon actuationof handle 39 squeegee 21 may be raised or lowered into the operative andinoperative position respectively.

pends downwardly from frame-member 40 in much the same manner assqueegee 21. J

A wick 46 is formed as a glove which completely en-' closes frame 40 andrubber squeegee member 45 and thus forms a wax pocket area generallyindicated'at 43 into which wax is appliedand stored. Wick 46 is formedof a relatively porous material so that'the wax within pocket area 48 bycapillary action saturates wick '46 whereupon when assembly B isarranged to pass over the floor the wax is spread evenly and uniformlyin a thin film or coating over the floor surface.

In greater detail frame member 40 is generally L-sh'apejd incross-section having a relatively horizontal leg 50and a relativelyvertical legf51. A rubber squeege 56 depends from vertical leg 51.Horizontal leg 50 provides. a front projection to hold 'the'forward endof the wic l i'. in spaced relation to the depending vertical member 51.

" and squeegee '56 thus forming pocket '48. In top plan Patented Mar. 29taco vertical member 51 comprises two substantially straight leg portion55- and 55 disposed at approximately angles to one another with the apexbeing at the middle portion of frame 40. Arms and 55 are thence bentforwardly as at 57 and 57 to form more forwardly projecting tips 58 and58 Wax is applied to assembly B from a wax storage tank 60 mounted onthe rear end of machine A. The wax is gravity fed from tank 60 throughtubes 61 and 61 in communication with assembly B. Tubes 61 and 61 arearranged to deposit wax via substantially horizontal tubes 65 and 65mounted on the undersurface of leg 50 interiorly of pocket 48 so thatthe wax is deposited adjacent the tip or forward bent sections 58 and 58It can thus be seen that with the wax deposit toward the end portions ofthe pocket 48 that with the forward motion of the machine the Wax willbe drawn inwardly towards apex section 56 of frame 40.

Vacuum means are provided to continuously withdraw surface wax frompocket 48. The means employed comprises a tube having a rubber nozzle 73disposed adjacent the front or leading edge of apex 56. Tube 70 is incommunication with a vacuumized wax storage chamber 71 mounted adjacentstorage tank 60 on the rear of machine A.

Chamber 71 is vacuumized by establishing communi cation between tank 71and tank 15 through a conduit 74. Rubber nozzle 73 is positioned apredetermined distance above the floor so that should the wax levelwithin pocket 48 reach the level of the bottom of nozzle 73 the excesswick is sucked into chamber 71 by the vacuum pressure derived from tank15. By this means the level of wax within pocket 48 is controlled.

Wick 46 is preformed to form a glove complementary in shape to frame 40and open at the top whereat tie strings 80 are arranged to attach theglove to the frame so that wick may be removably fitted on frame 40 andthere tied by tying the tie strings 80. It is therefore apparent thatthe wicks are readily changeable so that should a wick become dirty itmay be discarded or cleaned. It is also to be observed that the moreabsorbent the material forming the wick the greater the amount of waxapplied to the floor and conversely a less absorbent material willgenerally result in thinner application of wax.

It is thus seen that the combination of assembly A and B provides amechanism which is arranged to first apply water through brush 19, cleanthe floor by the use of the brush and thence remove the water from thefloor by squeegee 21. Assembly B immediately following the squeegee isthereafter arranged to apply wax with buffing action so that the entirefloor maintenance operation is accomplished by a single pass of thefloor area. Handle 39 is arranged to move both assembly B and squeegee21 to either an operative or inoperative position. It is furtherappreciated that a wick covered resilient squeegee blade of thecharacter herein disclosed may be used independently and apart from anattachment to a mechanical .floor scrubber to deposit and uniformly andevenly spread a coating of liquid wax on the floor, and that the scopeof the invention is not limited to use of the invention in conjunctionwith a floor scrubber or other mechanism.

In this device ,the quantity of wax deposited on the floor is determinedprimarily by the amount of pressure that squeegee 45 exerts against wick46 together with the absorption characteristic of the wick and thus theamount of liquid wax carried by pocket 48 may be varied within a saidrange without substantially effecting the .amount of wax applied to thefloor.

Althoughthe foregoing invention has been described in ,some' detail byway of illustration andexample for purposes of clarity of understanding,it is understood thatcertain changes and modificatiqns may be practiced4 within the spirit of the invention as limited only by the scope of theappended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A device for uniformly spreading wax and the like on a floor surfacecomprising a supporting frame means, a squeegee having a relatively thinresilient squeegee blade supported by said frame means, a layer of Wickmaterial of uniform thickness covering the floor engaging edge of theblade throughout its length, a liquid wax reservoir carried by saidframe means above the floor engaging edge of said blade, conduit meansconnecting said reservoir with said wick operable to continuouslygravity feed liquid wax to said wick, said wick covered blade defining asubstantially V-shaped leading edge to cause excessive wax to be wipedand flooded toward the center of said blade during travel of the deviceover a floor surface.

2. The combination of claim 1 and wherein a vacuum source carried by andmovable with said frame and support means is provided, and wherein thereis further provided a vacuum intake nozzle communicating with saidsource supported centrally of said V-shaped blade adjacent and forwardlyof the center portion of the leading edge side of said V-shaped bladeoperable to suck up excess wax flooded toward the center of said bladeduring travel of the device over a fioor surface.

3. A device or uniformly spreading liquid wax and the like on a floorsurface omprising; a frame, means for moving said frame across the floorsurface while maintaining said frame a fixed predetermined distanceabove the floor surface, a resilient squeegee depending downwardly fromsaid frame to engage said floor surface, and a glove formed of porousmaterial, said glove covering said frame and sandwiched between saidresilient squeegee and the fioor surface to form a liquid wax reservoiradjacent said squeegee.

4. A dwevice for uniformly spreading liquid wax and the like on a floorsurface omprising; a frame, means for moving said frame across the floorsurface while maintaining said frame a fixed predetermined distanceabove the fioor surface, a resilient squeegee depending downwardly fromsaid frame to engage said floor surface, a glove formed of porousmaterial, said glove covering said frame and sandwiched between saidresilient squeegee and the floor surface to form a liquid wax reservoiradjacent said squeegee, said resilient squeegee formed to provide asubstantially concave leading edge, and means for depositing liquid waxadjacent the opposite ends of the leading edge of said squeegee.

5. The combination of claim 4 and wherein means are provided to withdrawwax adjacent the leading edge of said squeegee from a point midwaybetween the ends of said resilient squeegee.

6. In a device for use in combination with a conventional industrialfloor scrubber of the general type having a mobile frame carrying arotating brush, means to deposit water in combination with the brush anda squeegee for removing water from the floor, the combination of; aframe disposed adjacent the trailing side of the means for Squeegeeingwater frcm the floor, said frame having a depending thin resilient bladehaving a leading edge disposed substantially parallel with the watersqueegee, a porous glove enveloping said frame with a portion of theglove sandwiched between the floor and said resilient blade to provide aliquid wzx carrying reservoir adjacent the leading edge of saidresilient blade; and means for depositing liquid wax in said reservoir.

7. A claim according to claim G and wherein said thin resilient blade isformed with a substantially concave leading edge and wherein said liquidwax depositioning means are disposed adjacent the end portions of saidblade.

8. A combination of claim 7 and wherein means are 5 provided incommunication with the wax reservoir pocket 1,910,325 7 midway betweenthe two ends of said blade to withdraw 2,187,671 wax from said pocket.

References Cited in the file of this patent I 5 9 077 UNITED STATESPATENTS 10O0437 1,897,726 Hillyard Feb. 14, 1933 V 6 Finnell May 23,1933 Suddarth Jan. 16, 1940 FOREIGN PATENTS 7 Great Britain May 27, 1953France Oct. 10, 1951

